Wednesday, March 12, 2008

It's been one of those days where I just can't seem to get anything done. So here's a quick round-up of some stories by Marisol over at Jihad Watch.

- Bangladesh's military-backed government has backed down from a policy to ensure equal property rights to women amid angry protests by Muslim clerics that the move would override Islamic law.

- She believes that we are confused about the meaning of human rights. “Rights are for individuals, not for religions or beliefs. ‘Every human is equal' does not mean that every belief is equal.” Islamists portray themselves as victims, she says, and policymakers have bought into this. Namazie says that the Muslim Council of Britain should not be seen as representative of British Muslims - but would nonetheless welcome any opportunities to debate with it. “Ex-Muslims are in a good position to challenge political Islam,” she says. “We must not let little girls or anyone else lose their human rights. We can't tolerate the intolerable for any reason - including religion.”

- The number of forced marriages involving young women from Britain being taken abroad to wed is likely far higher than first thought, an official report said Tuesday.

While a government unit investigating forced marriage deals with just 300 cases a year, the true figure could be up to 4,000, the Home Office-funded study into the issue said.

And the crazy thing about this last story is that the government isn't keen on acting to protect young vulnerable girls because they're afraid that this activity, the scale of which they don't really know, might be driven "further underground". So, just do nothing about young girls being married off against their will to complete strangers?